IFAW Admits To Vote Buying

On the eve of the opening of COP13, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) admitted to a UK newspaper that it has paid for the attendance in Bangkok of additional delegates from three developing countries. At the same time it has bluntly refused to make donations to the CITES fund designed to stop vote buying.

The newspaper report coincided with news that Fred O'Reagan, IFAW Chief Executive, had written to the CITES Secretariat refusing to donate any funds to the Sponsored Delegates Project. This project, established by CITES in 1987, accepts money from governments and non-governmental organizations which it then redistributes to developing countries to enable their participation in plenary meetings. The scheme is lauded for being fair and non-partisan and avoids the type of conflict of interest that can arise if nations or organizations pay directly for the attendance of delegates, a practice often referred to as "vote buying".

IFAW, which is one of the world's wealthiest animal rights groups, told the Chairman of the CITES Standing Committee that it would not make any donation to the Sponsored Delegates Project because it could not be sure that money would be used to support its own philosophy and that sponsored delegates should vote in line with its views.

Spokesman Peter Pueschel admitted to the Guardian newspaper of 30 September 2004 that IFAW has paid for the attendance of additional delegates to CITES COP 13 from Togo, Senegal and the Republic of Congo. In contrast to O'Reagan, Pueschel claimed that: "These people are not necessarily on our side. They will be on the national delegations but they will not vote themselves."

However, Pueschel went on to say: "Vote buying clearly goes on. You can see it clearly at the meetings."

Eugene Lapointe, President of IWMC, revealed in the same newspaper article that IFAW has also offered to pay for delegates from Russia and several west African delegations to attend COP13, on the condition that it be included within each delegation. These nations rejected IFAW's approaches.